Gender Studies

What is gender? What does it mean to be a man or a woman or genderqueer? Why do some people answer these questions differently? The best way to attempt to answer such complex questions is to approach the subject from a wide range of viewpoints.

Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary academic program which aims to expand students’ understanding of gender, sex, and the ways people locate themselves within gendered systems.

Research on GENDER explores the complicated set of sociocultural practices whereby human bodies are transformed into “men” and “women” and other genders. Most contemporary scholarship stresses how gender is socially and culturally produced and constructed, as opposed to being a fixed essence.

Research on SEX refers to a cluster of biological, chromosomal, and anatomical features in the human body. Sexual dimorphism is often thought to be concrete, whereas in reality the existence of intersex people points to a multiplicity of sexes in a human population.

Research on SEXUALITY explores sexuality as a broad term, which refers to a cluster of behaviors, practices and identities in the social world, largely linked to who an individual desires or has romantic and/or erotic connections with.

Students examine how gender roles are created from the building blocks of nature and culture. Students also learn how the application of a gendered lens has challenged traditional historical and cultural assumptions about gendered roles.

By promoting critical thinking across theoretical boundaries, Gender Studies prepares students to live and work effectively and respectfully in modern society. Those who wish to incorporate a gendered dimension into a professional career such as law, public policy, or business would benefit from a Gender Studies minor.

The minor combines well with any major.

The Gender Studies minor provides new frameworks that are sensitive not only to issues of gender, but also of race, class, and ethnicity. By analyzing the powerful and problematic impact of sexual inequalities, Gender Studies revises the way we see ourselves and our world.

Please clickherefor requirements regarding the Gender Studies Program at UCA.

Dr. Taine Duncan

Director, Gender Studies Minor

Department of Philosophy and Religion

Irby Hall 118b

Phone: (501) 852-2641

Email: tduncan@uca.edu

Department Phone: (501) 450-3179

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